Question: Have you named your...um, instrument?

No, not a sex thread.

I would have posted this in the Musicians Forum, but it doesn't get a whole lot of traffic these days.

My 75 year old German double bass is named Helga von Brown. (it has dark brown varnish finish)

How about it? Do you have a name for your guitar, trumpet, or kazoo?

:woohoo:

Chicks dig guitars.

Trombones? Not so much.

I plan on purchasing a violin. :)

I've got too many running underfoot. :P

They CAN put a crimp in your gear budget.

Just lack of a job putting a crimp in my gear budget right now.

I was planning on overhauling my bass, but now I'm not sure I'll be able to until I have some kind of income. And if that went well, I was planning on investing in a bandsaw and some guitar parts and trying to make my own guitars. But once again... income. :\

I'd like to have a few more guitars running underfoot, but right now I've just got one of most everything I play (except the renaissance instruments. Alto and tenor recorders aren't that easy to come by, and lutes are even harder to find.), one violin, one guitar, one electric guitar, one electric bass, one voice (I can never find more of those at the music store :P), and one keyboard. And my computer, which is basically just http://www.stickmanltd.com/mymusic/">another musical instrument to me. :P

I think if I do start making my own guitars, I'll probably name 'em. I need to think of a good egyptian name for the anhk shaped one I wanna make. :)

But the memories are too painful now.

Only half-serious, but I was once a avid flautist.

Some "professional" from the local orchestra totally destroyed any pretenses I may have had in pursuing further studies.

I still regret it.

Interesting.

You didn't meet a Herman this one time at band camp did you?

it was at cheerleading camp;)

"That freaking monster I hate"

Khash.

There's a reason they call it the ebony agony stick.

I should know. I used to play one.

Old joke: After a rehearsal for a broadway show, a sax player accidentally leaves his clarinet in the back seat of his unlocked car.
The next day he shows up to rehearsal distraught.

The guy sitting next to him asks what happened, and the sax player relates what he'd done the night before. His stand mate commiserates with him saying, "Man, I'm sorry your clarinet was stolen."

The sax player says, "Stolen? I wish! This morning there were THREE clarinets in my back seat."

I'm no good at it, but at least I don't have to clean out the spit. Wanna be musician but no talent for it.

Khash.

Give him two sticks and put him in front of a drum.

What do you do if he can't even do that?

Take one stick away and make him a conductor.

I have lots of intstruments, but only one that I actually play and keep in my apartment these days - the others are across the Atlantic. I still have very emotional attachments to these instruments, and can't bear to part with them. I have two double basses, and I should sell the older one, but I just can't, because it was the first bass I got when I was 15 or 16. It's only been played a few times in the last 11 years when my newer bass was in the shop. I do have a newspaper cut out that says "time to die" on my drum machine, that's been there for years, so that's a sort of name, I guess. I once had pictures of a girl taped to one of my electric basses, but I don't know that that counts either.

Despite it being a plywood Engelhardt, there's just too many memories there to turn it over to someone who doesn't care.

Still, I think I could sell it for a fair price to some teenager who would love it just as much as I did at that age. I'm thinking of selling both of my basses so that I could have one here in England, because I miss playing bass, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Why do we pick bass as an instrument to play? For a few years now, I've mostly been playing ukulele, because it's a carry-on, and I can take it anywhere without a car or any strain on my back. Maybe I'll just buy another electric bass, but it's just not the same, is it?

It sounds like a good solution for acoustic players who need portability.

Basically looks like somebody took a reciprocating saw to the lower bouts of a regular 3/4 bass.

http://www.czech-ease.com/czechease_jr.php

Here's a vid of Marco Panascia playing one one a TV show from the Netherlands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzRT3yu-3dc

I even tried out one that I saw a guy playing. It was a lot better than I expected, but I know that I'd never be happy going from a solid carved instrument to something like that. Most of what I play is bowed stuff, and I think the big bass tone is more important there, just because so many jazz gigs will involve amplification that drastically alters the tone anyway. I'm playing bass in a concert next month and I'm just borrowing a bass for that, but I haven't played it yet, so I don't know what to expect. Maybe something like the czech ease would be better in this sort of situation, because I would be used to my own instrument and probably sound better on it than I would a strange instrument, no matter how nice it is.

What sort of set up do you use now, and do you ever have to fly with your instrument?

Restaurants, clubs, etc.

3-4 months out of the year I do pit orchestra duty for shows that come through town. There used to be a trickle of session work here for me, but that's slowed down so now I get maybe one call every six weeks.

I've got Spirocores on the E and A strings, and Pirastro Chromesteels on the D and G. They seem to be a little more cooperative with the bow.

I'm using a Gage Realist pickup because it doesn't have that midrange and high end bump that sounds bad when you're playing arco. It works well in the pit, but can be a little dark.
For a while now I've wanted to also get a Schertler stat pickup/preamp as it seems to give a nice sound for jazz gigs.

Going through a Fishman Platinum preamp, then into a Acoustic Image Contra amp.

When I have to play both upright and electric, I use a SWR 15" combo amp with some outboard gear and an A/B box.

I've never flown with my upright. I've heard horror stories though.

The bass player with Nancy Wilson flew into town from L.A. (I think) for a gig, When he got his bass back at the airport he found that it was smashed into so much kindling. I think he had it in a Kolstein flight case.

I've been to Europe and Japan/Korea with my vintage MusicMan, was able to carry it on in a gig bag. Only had a problem once, when an airline refused to let me carry it in the cabin. They checked it under the plane in just a gig bag.

I just knew I'd get it back in pieces, but it actually made it back to me unscathed.

B^b Clarinet: Not named
A Clarinet: Not named
Flute: Not named
Oboe: Not named
Alto Sax: Not named
Tenor Sax: Not named
Horn: Not named
Trumpet: Not named
Cello: Not named
Piano: Not named
Slide Whistle: Not named

I do refer to them as 'my <type of instrument>' however...that's sort of like a name.

What do I win?

I also played oboe and french horn for a time. My name for those was, "those ornery motherfuckers". (in fairness to the oboe, it was usually the reed that was contrary)

See if you can guess what kind it is. ;)

:P

;)

"How about it? Do you have a name for your guitar, trumpet, or kazoo?

No. Maybe you'd like to suggest one? I carry an empty soy sauce can, restaurant supply-size, at protest marches, and beat on it with a furniture leg covered with a sock and masking tape.

You didn't mention empty soy sauce cans, which is kind of elitist. That's making me feel like smashing a Starbucks window. ::unauthorized smilie::

My Guitar is named Ana.
After a good friend of mine.

my treble recorder.

That said, some of them don't have names right now...

Case in point- http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=7764977&mesg_id=7764977

Only the last 2 pictured have names- the Sonic Blue Strat is "Rita" and the Yamaha Acoustic is "Flora."

but I usually just call her Ole Missus. My dilapidated but lovable '53 B-2 I keep at my church gig I often call "Bertha", especially when wheeling her around on her Roll-Or-Kari dollies and pushing her up ramps (wheeze pant pant.) Haven't named my two little spinet-model Hammonds...maybe I could call the L-100 "Ellie" and the M-102 I found in someone's trash "Oscar"...

The basses and guitars go unnamed, as do the two synths. My $25-at-a-yard-sale Rhodes ought to be called "for sale"...I love the Rhodes sound, but hate the action. That's one instrument I prefer sampled... ;)